THE MASHATU RANGERS' DIARY

GAME REPORT AUGUST 2010
                              
WEATHER AND VEGETATION

During this month we experienced very unpredictable weather, with fluctuating temperatures. In the mornings, temperatures were slightly above 10 degrees, while during the day temperatures increased to between 25 and 40 degrees. Along the river banks the vegetation is still green, and most of the trees have started shedding their leaves with increasingly windy conditions.   

LEOPARDS

Leopard sightings have been fairly good in August. A female leopard and her sub-adult cub were spotted on several occasions along the Majale River hunting and sometimes were seen with an impala kill. At Whitecliffs a male leopard was spotted with an impala kill in a tree and our guests had a very special viewing opportunity and were able to take some fantastic pictures. On another drive another male leopard was spotted in the area called Dead-Croton with an impala kill. There were 17 sightings of these elusive African big cats were been observed during the month of August. This number is lower than last year due to the late summer rains that we had this year. This resulted in an abundance of dense vegetation, which makes for perfect hiding places for these cats.

LIONS

Lion sightings have been great for this month. The well known sub adults from the Central Pride, one male and three females, seem to have concentrated their movements near Majale Island, and there is one lioness which has established her territory between the Vlei and the Limpopo-river. The dominant male seems to be roaming all over the reserve, sometimes he can be seen far upstream on the Matobole River. He was also seen on a couple of occasions near Kgwedi Airstrip with the lioness that roams in the northern area of the park, and going further into the Tuli Circle. These two lions were seen on an eland kill for a few consecutive days.     

CHEETAH

Cheetah sightings were fairly good during August. A coalition of three males was seen on several occasions. From eight awesome sightings of cheetah, two have been observed with an impala kill.    

ELEPHANTS

Mashatu Game Reserve is world renowned for having the largest population of free-ranging elephants on private land south of the Zambezi River. Family groups consisting of adults females with their calves and closely related groups form herds and can be seen on our morning and afternoon activities. This year we never battled to see elephants, as there is still abundant vegetation and water throughout the reserve, so they do not need to migrate as far as in the previous years. Heads of between 50 and 100 are still seen on drives this time of the year. Normally during this time of year these large groups break into small family herds to avoid food competition.      

BIRDING

Mashatu boasts a species list of about four hundred birds, most of which are intra African migrants. Birding is still very good this time of the year and most activity is seen at our Vlei area (Also known as marshland), where we have hundreds of water birds can be seen. Below is a list of some of the common species that can be seen.

Open grassland
Ground horn bill  
Secretary bird
All Francolins
Kori bustard (the heaviest flying bird)

Water birds
Egyptian geese
Black smith lap wing
Hammer kop
African jacana
And lots more.